'Step' has a specific meaning in music and it doesn't mean 'semitone'. Why not just use semitone seeing as that precisely describes what's intended? Conflating meanings seems like it could be confusing. "The tritone of this note is 6 steps up" "Gotcha, so the tritone of C is B" "No no, by step I currently mean tones, not semitones" "Ah, so 3 scale tones, ok" "No just 3 tones, or 6 steps" "Ok, I'll count 6 steps, 1,2,3,4..."...just use the correct word.
'Step' has a specific meaning in music and it doesn't mean 'semitone'. Why not just use semitone seeing as that precisely describes what's intended? Conflating meanings seems like it could be confusing. "The tritone of this note is 6 steps up" "Gotcha, so the tritone of C is B" "No no, by step I currently mean tones, not semitones" "Ah, so 3 scale tones, ok" "No just 3 tones, or 6 steps" "Ok, I'll count 6 steps, 1,2,3,4..."...just use the correct word.